The gaze direction of another person is an important social cue, allowing us to orient quickly in social interactions. The effect of short-term redirection of visual attention to the same object that other people are looking at is known as the gaze cueing effect. There is evidence that the strength of this effect depends on many social factors, such as the trust in a partner, her/his gender, social attitudes, etc. In our study we investigated the influence of race of face stimuli on the strength of the gaze cueing effect. Using the modified Posner Cueing Task an attentional shift was assessed in a scene where avatar faces of different race were used as distractors. Participants were instructed to fix the black dot in the centre of the screen until it changes colour, and then as soon as possible to make a rightward or leftward saccade, depending on colour of a fixed point. A male distractor face was shown in the centre of the screen simultaneously with a fixed point. The gaze direction of the distractor face changed from straight ahead to rightward or leftward at the moment when colour of a fixed point changed. It could be either congruent or incongruent with the saccade direction. We used face distractors of three race categories: Caucasian (own race faces), Asian and African (other race faces). Twenty five Caucasian participants took part in our study. The results showed that the race of face distractors influence the strength of the gaze cueing effect, that manifested in the change of latency and velocity of the ongoing saccades.

The issue of attention is one of the leading in sports psychology. Quite often, athletes’ failures in competitions are ultimately connected with the attention processes, i.e. distraction, switching or loss of concentration. Simultaneously, each particular kind of sport is distinguished by a specific competitive situation and accordingly presents a number of requirements to athletes, including attention features. Archery is no exception. Thus, in shooting sports, concentration and stability of attention are often deemed as the most significant features of attention.

The paper is devoted to the study of the attention dynamic properties in archers. Attention features of athletes were assessed depending on the sports major, gender, age, experience and level of competence. 65 archers from different regions of Russia took part in the study, including 34 males and 31 females, the average age being 16.29 ± 1.74. Experience ranges from 1 year to 8 years, average experience is 4.46 ± 1.93.

The research results showed that archers are characterized by high indicators of stability of attention, and also high efficiency of solving attention problems. The professional success of archery was associated with the ability to distribute attention when necessary. At the same time, there were no significant differences in the features of attention for recurved and compound archers, which indicates the uniformity of tasks related to attention in the sporting practice of archers. Summing up, it is necessary to include skills in the distribution of attention in the program of psychological training of archers.

Professional functions of modern trainers have long expanded from a simple function of training athletes to compete to the performance of the numerous roles of leader, organizer, psychologist, which are based on the ability of a coach to improve their professional skills and personal qualities. 

With the increasing popularity of sports, the means and conditions of sports training, the requirements to the quality of work and mastery of the main subjects of sports are increasing. The demand for a coach as a key figure in the education of successful athletes rises. 

The paper analyzes the research of criteria and factors of sports coach efficiency; the features of reflexive processes as one of the most effective ways of coach’s professional development. 

The correlation analysis performed in the work showed a significant connection between professional success and the reflexivity of trainers, which in general is correspondent with the results of similar studies performed in a number of other research fields. In the work there was no confirmation of the regular viewpoint in psychological studies of the relationship between the success of activity and the personality’s internality, which induced a number of new assumptions about the nature of the interaction of successful coaches with their pupils, leadership style, and personality traits.

The results of the study as a whole cause additional questions about individual psychological characteristics of respondents and allow to identify further research.

The paper is devoted to the theoretical and practical aspects of motor imagery widely used by athletes in a variety of sports as an effective psychological training method. The research introduces basic approaches, theories and modern views on the issue. There are a wide variety of views on the mechanisms underlying mental practice of motor tasks. In particular, mental image can be considered from exclusively cognitive perspective or as a direct and essential background for producing movement. 

To signify the notion of mental image in specialist studies the terms «mental study» or «mental training» are used. The research devoted to this issue has significantly influenced the conceptual understanding of the motor image nature. 

There are opposing theories, who employ the mental image that is regarded as a basic cognitive component and does not consist in direct interaction with the executive link of the motor system. On the other hand, there are theories that view the mental image as the immediate basis of the movement that stores information about all its parameters. 

Modern studies, including neuroimaging methods, confirm inseparability of these approaches and central locale of trigger mechanism that modulates physiological reactions and also its generality for real and imaginary action.

In conclusion, taking into account recent data on the nature of motor imagery, special attention is paid to practical aspects of using it in sports, which is different from conventional approaches and recommendations on motor imagery use.

The paper proves the assumption that being a worldview of the information society postmodernism simultaneously reverberates its problems, among which is blurring personal identity. The most vulnerable part of the postmodern ideology is the implicit inability to construct steady architecture of identification. This is hampered by specific ideas related to the fundamental principle of postmodernism, i.e. pluralism leading to relativism and the loss of sustainable landmarks. Applying the pluralism principle to the full may result in unlimited choice production, which should not be considered the achievement of the information society and postmodern culture, but its main problem. The social political consequences of tolerance issues and the equivalence of opinions, attitudes and values are discussed. Lack of preferred self-identification vectors reduces the motivation for the individual to develop a stable personal identity. If no paradigm in terms of the truth can claim a given status disputes over claims of significance turn into controversies over power, thereby generating social Darwinism. The principle of pluralism actually legitimizes radical ideologies, whose extreme form is terrorism put in the mosaic and multicultural postmodern world occurs to be one of many sociocultural paradigms. Exactly the identity crisis in the conditions of mass distribution of both military and information technologies is considered the main cause of radicalism as the result of finding pathological forms of cognitive personal identity. Social cultural and worldview crises of the information society are becoming the main cause for producing endurable and irregular forms of personal identity architecture.

May 11, 2017 two important documents aimed at strengthening international cooperation and raising the status of Russian psychology are signed in Lomonosov Moscow State University

The paper discusses the features of parenting in adolescents and the correlation of these features with the development of respect for parents. The first part of the paper suggests considering respect for parents as an important component of the parent-child relationship; it shows the relevance of studying the respect; it stipulates the choice for the study of adolescence; it describes some concepts of respect and offers the author’s selecting two values of respect for parents. The research is relevant due to the insufficient number of empirical studies of respect for parents and practical demand. The research results of 218 adolescents aged 12 to 17 and 129 of their parents (N=347) are shown. The research is conducted using the author’s questionnaire “Respect for Parents”, ADOR technique, adolescent essays “My parents”, and the technique “Analysis of Family Relationships”. The results are processed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.

The Paper describes the research results adolescent respect for parents, adolescents’ perception of parents’ attitude to them, and features of family parenting. A significant correlation between the features of parenting and respect/disrespect for parents in adolescents are considered. Most adolescents have a feeling of respect for their parents and show respectful behaviour; in this regard, the features of family upbringing have a stronger influence on developing the feeling of respect for parents rather than a prescribed respectful behaviour. The paper lists specific characteristics of parenting, affecting the feelinge of respect for parents and respectful behaviour towards them.

The paper describes the research results of relationship between personal autonomy and responsibility level in adolescence. The theoretical idea of unity of freedom and responsibility can be regarded as link between personal autonomy and level of responsibility in adolescence. The hypothesis of correlation between level of responsibility and autonomy in adolescence is realized. The sample includes 368 school students aged from 13 to 17, Moscow, Russia. The questionnaire to diagnose autonomy defines emotional, cognitive, intellectual and behavioural components of autonomy. The second questionnaire describes the responsibility level using the example of different moral dilemmas. The results of the empirical research describe the hypothesis on the relationship between personal autonomy and level of responsibility. Personal autonomy includes value, emotional, cognitive and behavioural components. Cluster groups with different levels of autonomy are defined: high autonomy, intellectual autonomy, low autonomy and disharmonic type of autonomy. Higher level of a number of autonomy components correlates with higher level of responsibility. Analysis of moral norm deviation shows that type and content of moral dilemma play an important role in responsibility acceptance. Gender differences in level of responsibility is defined in the following way: females show higher level of responsibility than males.

There are more than a dozen of personality theories in psychology currently. However, among psychologists there is no general agreement in understanding personality as a psychological reality, i.e. the agreement of phenomena opened to introspection and the facts established by observing the activity of the subject and his/her products, all together designated by the term «personality». The authors of these theories are dealing with very different phenomena and facts, sometimes not quite compatible ones, making impossible comparative analysis based on the criterion of adequacy, designed to assess the extent to which the scientific theory corresponds to the psychological reality explained by it.

Thus, it is useful to turn to the analysis of William James’s works in order to clarify the issue of the psychological reality of the person who according to the author did the most thorough job of identifying the basic phenomena and facts that need be referred to using the term «personality». The results of this study allowed to draw the following conclusions.

From James’s point of view, the psychological reality of personality must include the phenomenon of personal ego and the fact of hierarchically organized motivational sphere that has been developed as a result of individual’s self-determination. James’s representations have withstood the test of time, they were in demand by a number of renowned theorists of personality especially those that considered consciousness as a subject matter of scientific psychology. Perpetual interest in James’s concept of personality among theorists turns to be quite durable in time and is a subject matter of psychological reality.

The paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of vocational guidance in the social volunteering system. The essence of volunteer work is closely related with assistance to desperate people in searching for the meaning of living, often coinciding with labour activity that are deemed in terms of “the main matter of life” and “the leading activity”. For adolescents, it is the choice of career, and for adults, it is the work proper (i.e. an essential condition for personal self-realization). The problem of “forced volunteering” for experts in vocational guidance also means that they often have to work voluntarily and unselfishly outside the official guidelines. To clarify the terms «volunteer» and «a person in desperate need of help» the study used the method of analyzing the documents, e.g. the Regulations on Social Volunteering, the generalization of psychological sources, the initial survey of university students as active supporters of the volunteer movement, On the essence of volunteering and the place of career guidance in selfless social work. Vocational guidance is not excluded from the general system of volunteerism, but has an insufficiently defined status and low popularity among participants in social volunteering. Also, the problem of «forced volunteering» of experts in career counseling, which often requires voluntary and unselfish performance of quality work outside the framework of official instructions, is also indicated. Simultaneously, positive aspects of such disinterested career initiatives are noted, in particular, less control by the official inspectors (or customers) and, accordingly, greater freedom of creativity than when someone else does the work.

The paper describes research on the role and place of computer games in the lives of children and adolescents, and also perceiving how young gamers estimate the impact of various aspects of computer games and experience games in general on themselves.

The study involved gamers between the age of 11 and 19 years. The study is conducted using surveys and interviews. The issues are related to those aspects of games that are perceived as most important, attractive, and cause the greatest emotional response, and also determine the selection of games; how users appreciate game characters including users’ attitudes to the games and the place of the computer game in their lives.

The study revealed that children and adolescents generally have a positive attitude towards computer games and find them a useful and enjoyable part of life, they do not feel shame and remorse for wasting time playing computer games, and are going to continue to play on into adulthood. Playing computer games they learn to communicate and make decisions.

The most important aspect of evaluating game characters is their visual representation.

The character appearance in the game is one of the main factors of their attractiveness. Adolescents do not appreciate only important aesthetic component of the visual images, but also their meaning: reflection of personality or actions of characters in visual images.

Preferences in selecting games are largely determined by the player actions in the game rather than the game plot. For adolescents computer game is an opportunity to try themselves in different situations and get the experience of interacting with other people, who may get inaccessible in real life. A computer game for children is a model of a successful living, so it can be used as a means of personal self-development. Computer games make a full-fledged sphere of life in adolescents through which they gradually realize the importance of school and studies, sports, and hobbies. Playing computer games adolescents relax, socialize and gain social and cognitive skills

In contemporary world, the digital competence of adolescents is not a separate property or capacity any longer, becoming the prerequisite and basis for many types of activities, and the Internet has become a space mediating socialization of children. Russian population study indicated that there is a «gap» in the structure of motivation to improve digital competence: although every four teenagers from five ones declare preparedness for its development, their motivation in relation to specific goals and objectives is extremely low and does not exceed 20 per cent of the maximum possible level. The paper assumes that the «gap» is caused by different contents of general and specific motivation: general motivation describes great awareness of the importance and the declared preparedness, while specific motivation refers to the setting of specific goals. Applying the Digital Competence Index (DCI) in the samples of adolescents 12-17 years old (N=1203) and of parents of adolescents of the same age (N=1208) the relationship between general and specific motivation to improve digital competences and their links to the user’s activity, confidence, emotions, self-image on the Internet and its familiarization are considered. A high level of digital competence and excessive self-confidence in the user’s skills are associated with a less general motivation. A higher level of general and specific motivation is related to the participation of teachers and parents in the development of adolescent skills in the Internet. This extremely low self-confidence and the solution of any online problems by parents are associated with passive motivation, e.g. the desire to explore the Internet spontaneously through other people. Possible methods of developing active motivation to improve digital competence and the prevention of excessive confidence in adolescents are discussed

The paper presents the results of the value orientation research in high school students, Moscow, Russia. The sample (N=62) included 22 education and universal values and also self-attitude parameters using the four types of emotional attitude to learning. These types of motivation profile were obtained via pre-factorization estimates of the seven values of school life using the method of semantic differential, which allowed to estimate the severity of a positional or status motivation (1), achievement motivation (2), learning and cognitive motivation, (3) and motivation of affiliation (4). This enabled to further estimate the factor and correlation analysis of the parameters studied, which shows that the system of values is significantly different in males and females of the same age, even in relation to the same mean value of motivation. Motivation, values and self-attitude organize stable systems – on the current sample allocated the four most common systems, i.e. the four factors that are specific for both males and females. Simultaneously, there are systems of values dependent on expressiveness and the combination of a certain type of motivation, and independent of the type of motivation.

Female educational and cognitive motivation and positional (status) motivation related to the values were merged into one factor, but for males one factor includes achievement motivation and (with the opposite sign) affiliation motivation. While the self-realization of females occurs in the process of learning (the value of «selfimprovement in their studies»), and in the future they see an opportunity for self-realization through the value of «happy family life», the males with this motivation connect their opportunity for self-realization with other values, i.e. «health», «recognition by other team members», «my authority.»

The paper presents the concept of an interdisciplinary project on the development and implementation of socio-psychological technologies of building enterprise culture of the geographical region representatives in Russia. The purpose of this technology is to encourage entrepreneurial activity of the working-age population of a certain Russian geographical region with its cultural, historical, economic and socio-psychological features of the project launches by Professor Takhir Yu. Bazarov «Stolypin reform: version 2.0» and is being implemented in the Saratov region which is historically associated with the name of the prominent Russian reformer Pyotr Stolypin. The project started in the Chernyshevsky Saratov National Research State University in the course of the 7th Scientific Practical Conference «Organizational psychology: people and risks» (October 19-20, 2016) devoted to the interdisciplinary analysis of the reforming practice of the Russian economy within «past – present – future» transspective, leadership in terms of reforms and capacity assessment (socio psychological, cultural, economic) of the Saratov region in the context of more active development of entrepreneurship by establishing the entrepreneurial culture.

The paper describes innovative communication technology organization and promotion of value and target-oriented discussions of scientists, managers and students (among the authors T. Yu. Bazarov and T. A. Nestik are among the authors). The results of socio-psychological research are presented and discussed: a) the image of Saratov city and the image of Saratov entrepreneurs, b) Saratov citizens’ idea about the (ideal and actual) image of Saratov entrepreneurs and Saratov respect of the business selfassessment by entrepreneurs of their image in the eyes of citizens, c) the analysis of the reformer personality and successful leadership in terms of reforms, d) the results of the comparative analysis of the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries crises, e) the results of the research on values and moral development level of the Saratov entrepreneurs, f) on the basis of the obtained results the proposed concept of the development and implementation of socio-psychological technologies of building entrepreneurial culture of the geographical region representatives in Russia.

The paper analyzes the work of Russian and foreign scholars devoted to the role of cross analyzer cooperation in developing and implementing mathematical abilities. Crossmodal interaction is considered as an additional category of neuropsychological analysis that allows to extend the existing ideas about the psychological structure and brain providing the mathematical ability. There are data that confirm the relevance of studying the interaction of the senses. Many of the research on this issue are carried out using the synesthesia which is considered a rare phenomenon. However, both Russian and foreign works suggest that the interaction of analyzers is not characteristic only to those whose brain is synesthetic. The joint work of the senses is characteristic of every person since his/her childhood, and is an obligatory condition for cognitive processes.

Cross analyzer synthesis is assumed to play an important role in producing spatial representations and the ability to intuitively perceive the notion of quantity (evolutionary foundations of mathematical ability). On the brain level, these processes are provided primarily by functioning of parietal and tertiary cortical areas located at the junction of cortical analyzer areas and also temporal areas that border on the parahippocampal brain area.

When dealing with school mathematics the structure of mathematical abilities is changing due to verbal and symbolic representations of numerical coding. Dealing with symbols opens up new opportunities, but it also narrows the spectrum of modalities involved in doing mathematical sums. Thus, the ability to re-encode information from one modality to another after school mathematics is perceived has an impact on the efficacy of mathematical activity. Doing mathematical sums is accompanied by crossmodal interaction that occurs on the unconscious level.

Some problem conditions may be efficiently processed in one modality, others may be solved in other modality.

Apparently, the ability to various crossmodal re-encoding patterns varies considerably from person to person. The effectiveness of crossmodal interactions may determine the severity of certain components of mathematical abilities and influence successful solutions of the corresponding types of mathematical problems.

The psychophysical research (N=106) on loudness distinction of tonal signals (method 2AFC) has been carried out. Applying the principle of subject`s activity and qualitative analysis to traditional psychophysical research was accomplished in the frameworks of differential psychological approach in psychophysics. The influence of self-regulation (questionnaires: HAKEMP-90, Style of behaviour self-regulation, Self- organization of behavior) on sensory sensitivity index A’ was observed. The relationship between loudness distinction effect and self-regulation processes mediating the sensory task decision were revealed. Applying the theoretical principle of subject`s activity to traditional psychophysical research was accomplished in the frameworks of differential psychology approach in psychophysics (A.N. Gusev). The idea of stimuli variation uncertainty results in appropriate transformation of the functional organ (A.N. Leontiev, A.A. Ukhtomskiy) that is relevant to sensory discrimination task performance.

Most modern psychologists who deal with preschool age emphasize the development of executive functions as one of the most important factors in this age. The paper compares two most important and common approaches to disclosing and diagnosing voluntariness in the preschool age: the model of executive functions «unity with diversity» of A. Miyake and the skills theory of L.A. Venger. The model of the executive functions considers three main components of executive functions: working memory; flexibility of attention or switching; restraining control. The basis of cognitive abilities theory is the concept of cultural facilities (sensory standards, visual models, etc.) that are being developed throughout the preschool period. In accordance with these two diagnostic complexes were drawn up, aimed at diagnosing voluntariness in preschool years. The study involved 48 children aged 5-6 years, kindergarten students (24 girls and 24 boys) conducted in Moscow, Russia. The results showed that despite a variety of theoretical approaches to early childhood and voluntariness they reverberate the same reality. 

The most revealing methods (the results of which you can predict the eventual consequences) were elaborated: the method of «Inhibition» (subtest of neuropsychological diagnostic complex techniques NEPSY-II, Korkman et al, 2007) in the case of A. Miyake model, and methods of «Schematization» in the abilities theory of L.A. Venger (Venger, Kholmovskaya, 1978).

The paper focuses on the phenomenon of forgetting as a primal and generally productive memory process. The cases that require temporary and permanent forgetting of the data stored in the long-term memory are contrasted. The main methodological obstacle in forgetting research is identified as arising from the logical prohibition to argument from the negative, i.e. “the evidence of absence is not the evidence of absence”. Two mechanisms of forgetting are discussed in the paper: transformation of the memory trace and modulation of trace accessibility. The former mechanism of forgetting consists of memory trace destruction (memory trace decay, retroactive and proactive interference, and «catastrophic» interference) or its transformation that leads to forming a new memory representation. The most promising way to legitimize the trace destruction mechanism is narrowing the further research to episodic memory subsystem. The latter mechanism of forgetting consists of both passive failure in access to appropriate memory content (the tip of the tongue phenomenon, the category size effect, the fan effect) and the process of active retrieval inhibition. This phenomenon represents temporary inhibition of competing semantically similar responses in semantic memory, and motivational inhibition of self-deprecating memories in autobiographical memory. Thus, a variety of experimental paradigms in intentional forgetting research are considered. Contrary to the common claim that forgetting is а universal and homogeneous phenomenon, we propose that forgetting strategies might vary in different memory subsystems, and also depend on activity characteristics during encoding, storage and retrieval.

In 2016, the scientific and pedagogical community from different countries is celebrating the 120th anniversary of the birth of L. S. Vygotsky, an outstanding humanist, the Russian scientist who made an enormous contribution to the development of the socialization of man in nature, culture and society.

A meeting of Chinese Psychological Society was held on October 14-16 in Sian (China). It united more than 3000 participants: Chinese scientists as well as representatives of UNESCO International Union of Psychological Science and Russian, Indian, Pakistani, Mongolian and American Psychological Societies.

The Meeting outcomes included agreements on joint scientific events and research projects of Chinese and Russian Psychological Societies. It might be a step towards establishment of Euroasian alliance in psychological science.